Jennifer Livingston, Nederland. Holiday Food Boxes with delicious treats and wholesome staples, lovely gifts for parents and children, and lots and lots of coats were all being set up on Friday, December 13, 2019, in preparation for distribution the next morning. Generosity filled the gymnasium and multipurpose room of the Nederland Community Center as busy volunteers worked like a synchronistic hive to set everything out with festive flare. Memories of past events abounded as many long term volunteers spoke of when the event was in the Nederland Community Presbyterian Church. It has definitely grown! Now, The Nederland Food Pantry and the Nederland Clothing Closet serve residents from Allenspark to Gilpin, creating a livable and supportive community where residents can get what they need to make it. Certainly, in the cold and snow, a warm coat is a basic necessity. 

This year the Rotary Club of Nederland, a satellite of the Rotary Club of Boulder Valley, made a special effort to serve the Peak to Peak area with its coat drive for the first time. Dana Edwards explained that the Rotary Club has been doing coat drives for over 30 years, and she brought it to Nederland this year. The Nederland Community Library, Nederland Community Center, and Nederland Elementary School all participated by getting the word out and placing donation boxes in their facilities. The nearly 400 items collected in Nederland were joined by 2,000 other donations collected by the Rotary Club of Boulder Valley and all were cleaned for free by Art Cleaners in Boulder. Next, Edwards and her husband made sure that a fabulous collection of coats were made available to the Nederland area community. Edwards related that men’s coats were in particularly high demand and they made it possible for a good supply to make its way up the hill and were gratefully accepted by the Nederland Clothing Closet. 

The Nederland Clothing Closet is open 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. on Saturdays and the first and last Thursday of each month. The Nederland Food Pantry is also open during those times to area residents in need of support.

(Originally published in the December 19, 2019, print edition of The Mountain-Ear.)